A short introduction
Hey friends
Long time lurker first time poster here.
I am a long term marijuana enthusiast and lover that just got sick of being part of consumer chain and decided to grow his own medicine. I am suffering from debilitating uncurable disease and unfortunately my health is deteriorating and I can't do things I used to so much so as age is taking over I decided soil is too much work and hassle for me as I need to worry about my future and try to learn and maintain an somewhat automated system that only needs regular checkup and maintainance.
That bought me to hydroponics, I thought it was some mystical sci fi branch of science up until half a year ago but the more I was opting on taking a risk and growing my own ( I live in Europe in country where its still highly illegal to do so ) but the more I was thinking about what equipement to buy and how to start my indoor adventure I was seeing the futility of trying to do "organic" grow in indoor settings...
I am somewhat well versed in outdoor growing because I have had quite a few guerilla grows over the years but I am too old for all that risk and stress haha.
Plus I really wanted not only to grow my medicine but to understand the in's and out's of each and every part of the process of doing so so literally my only option was to get into hydroponics. I also would like to build my own hydro farm for a lot of different crops along a few years so I decided if I learn to properly grow some top notch medicinal in a hydro setup how hard could it be growing my own tasty tomatoes and lettuce along the line?
This setup is a result of almost 3 months of planning, learning and preparation before I even assembled it to be sure I ain't wasting money on redundant or bad equipment. I pretty much had the whole theory in place at this point but now its time to turn it into real knowledge through real life practice.
So let me give you a brief rundown of my operation so far.
1. General Info:
Strain (Breeder): Melon Gum ( Dr. Underground )
Grow Type: Hydro - whole tray Ebb & Flow / Top Drip Feed - (No pots)
Medium: Hydroton Clay Pebbles - 30 Gallon
Tent Size & Type: 5x5 ( 1.5x1.5m ) - MarsHydro
Growlight: Optic 8+ COB LED
Hydro Tray: 95x95cm GHE Ebb&Grow 25gallon (100L tank)
Inline Fan: Winflex TT 150 U
Water Chiller: Hailea 150A
RO Filter: Maxaquarium 000 PPM
Airquality Monitor: Kaiterra Co2 Egg
Misc Equipement:
Bull Carbon Filter
GSE Timer
Klarestein Dehumidifier
ProKlima Humidifier
Stadler Form Oscilating Fan
Cyclone Fan
Air Compressor 45w
2x Submersible Oxygen Air Pump 220-240V
4x Air Stones
2x Regular small clip fans
2x Grownets (5x5)
2. Nutrient Info:
Greenleaf Nutrient line
Megacrop ( Seed to finish )
Kelp Extract ( Seed to finish )
Sweet Candy (Flower only)
Optional - Cal Mag & Bud Explosion - don't think I will be using those, too high PPM counts would throw everything off balance it seems.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CX Horticulture Nutrient line
Regen - A - Root ( Seed to finish )
Bio - Balancer ( Seed to finish )
Optional - Wilt Guard
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Beneficials, Additives, Supplementation & Misc:
Beneficials:
TNC MycorrHydro
SoilBalance Pro Mix
Additives:
Future Harvest's - Royal Fulvic Gold (0-1-0)
Yucca
Supplements (Optional):
Epson Salt - Mag/S source - seems MC needs a lot Mag supplementation especially under COB's
GHE Cal Mag
GHE Mineral Magic
Silica SiO2
Aloe Vera
Misc:
Triacontanol - Folliar application only w. Yucca, Silica, Fulvic, Kelp & Cal Mag IF needed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So thats pretty much my whole fucking setup as it is.
I started originally 4 months ago in Coco but I hated it, I know everyone says its best for begginers but I had serious issues with its moisture retention, also didn't wash it quite enough so had shitload of coco dried particles floating around my growbox when ventilators were on.
And not only that but only 3 out of 5 seeds germinated meaning I had to keep a shitload longer veg to cover the whole 5x5 with only 3 plants.
So I ditched that, got to week 3 and decided if I am gonna go hydro might as well abuse the fast drying time of Hydroton = easier root oxygenation = faster growth.
And I am loving it. Next batch I decided I wanna do automatics to cover up for lost time on coco project, so I opted out for 2x Crystal Meth, 3x Devil Cream and 3x Purple Lemonades... which also ended up in thrash because I had a fucking flood 2 weeks into the grow.
The water returning from my water chiller to the nutrient tank goes through a somewhat longer hose that managed to turn itself around in my tank and literally start shooting the water out of it... luckily that night I wasn't able to sleep and I noticed it literally right away.. still had to rip apart the whole setup in single night to save up my room because it flooded outside of the growbox (shitty water proof they got in these MarsHydro growbox lining trays).
I cannot tell you how the fuck I even managed to get that hydroton table off the nutrient tank, the thing must weight around 60kilos... but that panic mode man.
I was seriously contemplating should I just quit by now and try a regular soil grow but I said fuck it, all in baby leap of faith.
I decided to not tempt fate in future so I went to my hardware store and bought industrial grade hydroisolation for outter ponds and pools, mainlined that as inside insolation inside my growbox around the frame pipes. If it manages to happen again it will be a self contained swimming pool at least, but that hose reversing itself in tank was really not a variable I could count on especially with everything else I was trying to keep track off in that period.
So, after that I put some automatic freebies that were all over genetics wise, had like 6 strains and I couldn't get them to work on same nutrient recepies because one likes it the other is deficient and such problems... they were freebies that I had to pick like 7 different ones to get them all in 65-70 day flower period so I can flush them all at the same time (since I can't preflush multiple strains in whole tray setup) so I just decided fuck it all.
Lets do a mono culture project because thats how ebb & flow is supposed to be done, I have opted for Melon Gum, a strain I already growed outdoors and had some experience with plus a strain that I know is juicy as they get... its just a perfect candidate for my setup, as I have a lot of height issues (can't grow plants over 110 cm's) and melon tops at around 100 cm, is a hugeeee yielder and delivers some of the most mouthwattering flavor I ever tried... its like literally smoking on a fucking watermellon bubblegum.
Insane.
So here we are boys.
Day 13 of my new adventure. This time everything seems totally under control, I see they have a slight mag deficiency as new top growth is too bright and lime greenish but its time to slowly start upping the nutrients anyway this following week.
They were fed 400 PPM MC + 100 PPM of additives for 500 PPM total but I increased MC PPMs to 550-600 yesterday for a total of 700. They had their first feed yesterday and seems they got a small nutrient burn from what I can see on some leafs, nothing major gonna see if I need to dilute the solution a bit but I think they gonna get through it. I am really hating this Mag issue tho.
Day: 13
Current Environment Conditions:
Temp: 24-25c
RH: 70-75%
Co2: 812
Nutrient Solution Parameters:
PPM: 690-700
EC: 1.05
PH: 5.85
Temp: 20c
So yea they look pretty healthy to me, apart from lime green bright new growth but thats somewhat normal... tho it is a Mag issue, but seems if I up the MC its too much, my current nutrient solution has 30 PPM of added Epson Salt Mag, thought it should had been enough but doesn't seem so.
The 4 plants you see separate in a black tray on top of the tank are those random autoflower seedlings from the past batch, they are only 6 days older then the replanted babies - which was 2 days ago).
They seem quite healthier even tho they are a bit older so they can uptake more, I use them mainly for reference points so I can see beforehand how the young ones will react before I apply the same nutrients and conditions.
Only difference is they are not showing so much of lime green growth issue - they did but I treated them with 20 PPM of Triacantanol, 20 PPM Mag, 10 PPM GHE Mineral Magic, Silica, Yucca and Aloe Vera Foliar spray and they recovered miraculasly .
Except that bright yellow top mutant, I left him to starve because he really doesn't like the conditions these other plants are in, plus he seems to have some mutation as he was quite gimped as a baby so he is irrelevant
Anyway, this is about as detailed breakdown as I can give you guys at this point, really hoping to have learned enough about my setup to have finally dialed in and calibrated most parts of the process.
Thats why I opted to join the community that learned me most of what I know, I wanna share and help people see the difference too... plus if I hit any brick walls and setbacks again would rather have you guys have my back together we are stronger
Anyways thats it for today, I will be try to be frequent with my updates as possible but not bugger you guys daily with it unless you want to see more that is hahahah
cheers my friends and remember...
preparation is half the victory
Hey friends
Long time lurker first time poster here.
I am a long term marijuana enthusiast and lover that just got sick of being part of consumer chain and decided to grow his own medicine. I am suffering from debilitating uncurable disease and unfortunately my health is deteriorating and I can't do things I used to so much so as age is taking over I decided soil is too much work and hassle for me as I need to worry about my future and try to learn and maintain an somewhat automated system that only needs regular checkup and maintainance.
That bought me to hydroponics, I thought it was some mystical sci fi branch of science up until half a year ago but the more I was opting on taking a risk and growing my own ( I live in Europe in country where its still highly illegal to do so ) but the more I was thinking about what equipement to buy and how to start my indoor adventure I was seeing the futility of trying to do "organic" grow in indoor settings...
I am somewhat well versed in outdoor growing because I have had quite a few guerilla grows over the years but I am too old for all that risk and stress haha.
Plus I really wanted not only to grow my medicine but to understand the in's and out's of each and every part of the process of doing so so literally my only option was to get into hydroponics. I also would like to build my own hydro farm for a lot of different crops along a few years so I decided if I learn to properly grow some top notch medicinal in a hydro setup how hard could it be growing my own tasty tomatoes and lettuce along the line?
This setup is a result of almost 3 months of planning, learning and preparation before I even assembled it to be sure I ain't wasting money on redundant or bad equipment. I pretty much had the whole theory in place at this point but now its time to turn it into real knowledge through real life practice.
So let me give you a brief rundown of my operation so far.
1. General Info:
Strain (Breeder): Melon Gum ( Dr. Underground )
Grow Type: Hydro - whole tray Ebb & Flow / Top Drip Feed - (No pots)
Medium: Hydroton Clay Pebbles - 30 Gallon
Tent Size & Type: 5x5 ( 1.5x1.5m ) - MarsHydro
Growlight: Optic 8+ COB LED
Hydro Tray: 95x95cm GHE Ebb&Grow 25gallon (100L tank)
Inline Fan: Winflex TT 150 U
Water Chiller: Hailea 150A
RO Filter: Maxaquarium 000 PPM
Airquality Monitor: Kaiterra Co2 Egg
Misc Equipement:
Bull Carbon Filter
GSE Timer
Klarestein Dehumidifier
ProKlima Humidifier
Stadler Form Oscilating Fan
Cyclone Fan
Air Compressor 45w
2x Submersible Oxygen Air Pump 220-240V
4x Air Stones
2x Regular small clip fans
2x Grownets (5x5)
2. Nutrient Info:
Greenleaf Nutrient line
Megacrop ( Seed to finish )
Kelp Extract ( Seed to finish )
Sweet Candy (Flower only)
Optional - Cal Mag & Bud Explosion - don't think I will be using those, too high PPM counts would throw everything off balance it seems.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CX Horticulture Nutrient line
Regen - A - Root ( Seed to finish )
Bio - Balancer ( Seed to finish )
Optional - Wilt Guard
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Beneficials, Additives, Supplementation & Misc:
Beneficials:
TNC MycorrHydro
SoilBalance Pro Mix
Additives:
Future Harvest's - Royal Fulvic Gold (0-1-0)
Yucca
Supplements (Optional):
Epson Salt - Mag/S source - seems MC needs a lot Mag supplementation especially under COB's
GHE Cal Mag
GHE Mineral Magic
Silica SiO2
Aloe Vera
Misc:
Triacontanol - Folliar application only w. Yucca, Silica, Fulvic, Kelp & Cal Mag IF needed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So thats pretty much my whole fucking setup as it is.
I started originally 4 months ago in Coco but I hated it, I know everyone says its best for begginers but I had serious issues with its moisture retention, also didn't wash it quite enough so had shitload of coco dried particles floating around my growbox when ventilators were on.
And not only that but only 3 out of 5 seeds germinated meaning I had to keep a shitload longer veg to cover the whole 5x5 with only 3 plants.
So I ditched that, got to week 3 and decided if I am gonna go hydro might as well abuse the fast drying time of Hydroton = easier root oxygenation = faster growth.
And I am loving it. Next batch I decided I wanna do automatics to cover up for lost time on coco project, so I opted out for 2x Crystal Meth, 3x Devil Cream and 3x Purple Lemonades... which also ended up in thrash because I had a fucking flood 2 weeks into the grow.
The water returning from my water chiller to the nutrient tank goes through a somewhat longer hose that managed to turn itself around in my tank and literally start shooting the water out of it... luckily that night I wasn't able to sleep and I noticed it literally right away.. still had to rip apart the whole setup in single night to save up my room because it flooded outside of the growbox (shitty water proof they got in these MarsHydro growbox lining trays).
I cannot tell you how the fuck I even managed to get that hydroton table off the nutrient tank, the thing must weight around 60kilos... but that panic mode man.
I was seriously contemplating should I just quit by now and try a regular soil grow but I said fuck it, all in baby leap of faith.
I decided to not tempt fate in future so I went to my hardware store and bought industrial grade hydroisolation for outter ponds and pools, mainlined that as inside insolation inside my growbox around the frame pipes. If it manages to happen again it will be a self contained swimming pool at least, but that hose reversing itself in tank was really not a variable I could count on especially with everything else I was trying to keep track off in that period.
So, after that I put some automatic freebies that were all over genetics wise, had like 6 strains and I couldn't get them to work on same nutrient recepies because one likes it the other is deficient and such problems... they were freebies that I had to pick like 7 different ones to get them all in 65-70 day flower period so I can flush them all at the same time (since I can't preflush multiple strains in whole tray setup) so I just decided fuck it all.
Lets do a mono culture project because thats how ebb & flow is supposed to be done, I have opted for Melon Gum, a strain I already growed outdoors and had some experience with plus a strain that I know is juicy as they get... its just a perfect candidate for my setup, as I have a lot of height issues (can't grow plants over 110 cm's) and melon tops at around 100 cm, is a hugeeee yielder and delivers some of the most mouthwattering flavor I ever tried... its like literally smoking on a fucking watermellon bubblegum.
Insane.
So here we are boys.
Day 13 of my new adventure. This time everything seems totally under control, I see they have a slight mag deficiency as new top growth is too bright and lime greenish but its time to slowly start upping the nutrients anyway this following week.
They were fed 400 PPM MC + 100 PPM of additives for 500 PPM total but I increased MC PPMs to 550-600 yesterday for a total of 700. They had their first feed yesterday and seems they got a small nutrient burn from what I can see on some leafs, nothing major gonna see if I need to dilute the solution a bit but I think they gonna get through it. I am really hating this Mag issue tho.
Day: 13
Current Environment Conditions:
Temp: 24-25c
RH: 70-75%
Co2: 812
Nutrient Solution Parameters:
PPM: 690-700
EC: 1.05
PH: 5.85
Temp: 20c
So yea they look pretty healthy to me, apart from lime green bright new growth but thats somewhat normal... tho it is a Mag issue, but seems if I up the MC its too much, my current nutrient solution has 30 PPM of added Epson Salt Mag, thought it should had been enough but doesn't seem so.
The 4 plants you see separate in a black tray on top of the tank are those random autoflower seedlings from the past batch, they are only 6 days older then the replanted babies - which was 2 days ago).
They seem quite healthier even tho they are a bit older so they can uptake more, I use them mainly for reference points so I can see beforehand how the young ones will react before I apply the same nutrients and conditions.
Only difference is they are not showing so much of lime green growth issue - they did but I treated them with 20 PPM of Triacantanol, 20 PPM Mag, 10 PPM GHE Mineral Magic, Silica, Yucca and Aloe Vera Foliar spray and they recovered miraculasly .
Except that bright yellow top mutant, I left him to starve because he really doesn't like the conditions these other plants are in, plus he seems to have some mutation as he was quite gimped as a baby so he is irrelevant
Anyway, this is about as detailed breakdown as I can give you guys at this point, really hoping to have learned enough about my setup to have finally dialed in and calibrated most parts of the process.
Thats why I opted to join the community that learned me most of what I know, I wanna share and help people see the difference too... plus if I hit any brick walls and setbacks again would rather have you guys have my back
together we are stronger Anyways thats it for today, I will be try to be frequent with my updates as possible but not bugger you guys daily with it
unless you want to see more that is hahahahcheers my friends and remember...
preparation is half the victory
